QOTD FU: Your Suggestions for the Future of Mazda
About three weeks ago, my Question Of The Day focused on public statements about Mazda’s future plans. The statements came from the CEO of Mazda North America, as reported in an article by Tim Cain. Many of you responded and agreed with the assertions and opinions I put forth, while some were brave enough to disagree. By and large, it was a fairly productive conversation, with over 150 replies in the comments.
Now that some time has passed and the comments have largely ceased, I can fulfill a request made by commenter slow_poke: a summation of your top recommendations, in our first Mazda QOTD FU (follow-up). Let’s see what you had to say.
We’re going to breeze past the opinions I put forth in the QOTD article to focus solely on your suggestions. Below are the most popular suggestions, per my very scientific methodology: I reviewed all comments on the article and counted the mentions of each general suggestion. Each suggestion mention counted as a point, as did any supporting comment that replied to the base comment. Below are the results, reflecting any suggestion with four or more points.
Without further ado, here are your six ideas to Make Mazda Great Again.
Winner: Upmarket turbo 4-cylinder, 15 points
The people of TTAC believe Mazdas are down on power and engine options. The most common suggestion is to add the 2.5T engine from the CX-9 across the line, especially to the 6 sedan.
Second place: NVH fixes, 9 points
Responses indicate that while Mazda has addressed some of its NVH issues since 2016, offerings are still not class competitive with the likes of Hyundai, Kia, and other Japanese manufacturers.
Third place: Dealer quality, 8 points
TTAC readers would suggest a flight to quality is necessary for the dealers. Bad service experiences, sleazy salespeople, and aggressive tactics in the F&I office were all mentioned. Nothing drives a potential customer away faster than a poor dealer.
Fourth place: Dealer quantity, 8 points
It would appear Mazda needs to increase its dealership coverage if its to increase market share. There are large geographical areas not covered by the current Mazda dealer network, which is another great way to lose sales. You can’t buy a car if there’s nobody to sell it to you.
Honorable mention: Compact truck, 4 points
A few people would like to see the global Mazda BT-50 truck make its way to North America, and go up against the established names in the market.
Honorable mention: Don’t bother, 4 points
Some believe Mazda is destined to stay a bit player in North America. Comments indicated there’s no point in attempting a larger share of the North American market: competition is too high on these shores, and Mazda’s bread and butter is sales in other places.
The rest of the responses did not warrant inclusion, as they were too few and far between. But there you have it, exactly what TTAC readers think Mazda should do to earn their votes.
[Image via Mazda, Twitter, Imgur]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Do a SWOT analysis of Subaru and you'll get the correct answer in 5 minutes. It's still one of the hottest selling brands in the US due to AWD, tree-hugging branding, and affordability. It also has the worst engine portfolio for cost-effectiveness and fuel-efficiency. Subarus also have bipolar reliability with seemingly equal numbers of great stories and horror stories. Build "Subarus" with SkyActiv inline engines, and develop/license the mild-hybrid technology necessary to achieve CAFE standards (since Congress doesn't seem capable of reforming anything important right now). Mazdas will sell like hotcakes.
I have a very simple solution to help Mazda sell thousands more Mazda 6`s: Make sure your dealers have more than 3 or 4 cars on the lot. I am shopping for one here in British Columbia and it is same story at every dealership. Each dealer has only a few 6`s on their lot. They are almost entirely GT`s that sticker for over $38,000 canadian. Every dealer had the same tale to tell - all the lower priced GX and GS models are usually sold before they reach the dealership and Mazda will not give them anymore than that.